You Know When

you make something, and you surprise yourself? Today was the day..

This card surprised me - big time!! I mean.. I am IN LOVE with Marvin The Bat from The Stamping Bazaar, come on..

I thought I best take a photo before I cut him out incase I fuffed up
and had to start again, hence the smudging around the outside of
him. Its not that I have a hard time staying in the lines;
its the fact that cotton bud heads are not delicate!! LOL.

Is he not just one of the cutest character you have ever seen?! Yes sir-ee!! Please check out the Stamping Bazaar blog and store. These people.. are just genius!!

I want to say a massive thank you to the Emma half of The Two Pink Ladies for inspiring me in such a way that I sat for almost two hours tryna work out how to colour this little critter in grey and black. 7+ digi images later I came up with this guy!! Isn't he just adorable?! *Hopefully if she is reading this she may do a tutorial for us? Hehe. *

I've had this card base lying around for forever - I forget why I had embossed it with the dot flourishes - but hey, its moment has finally arrived. The striped and dotted papers are from a free digi kit by Summer Driggs - love her stuff, thank you Shelly, for pointing me in that direction. I used some corrugated cardboard (another medium Emma uses a LOT of!!) from a box I got some stuff sent in from eBay (the Devil).

The handmade flowers are two 1" circles and 1 3/4" circle cut into a spiral and rolled to make mini flowers - the embellishments in the centre are from MeiFlower crafts - they're her sequin flowers - perfect for that finishing touch!! I added some Platinum Stickles here and there - my new fave Stickles, the colour looks gorgeous against kraft. I also dotted some orange Prima pearls to fill in some of the blank space.

You guessed it - I had to have my finishing touch - one rounded corner. I have seriously been neglecting my Corner Chomper of late - and for that I apologise *hangs head in shame* I love that tool!! I also added some Glossy Accents to his eyes for a bit more interest - but my crap photography skills didn't pick that up!!

The sentiment is put together atop a SU! tab punch. I used some Jenni Bowlin circle letter stickers and embossed a tiny 'friend' sentiment from a Hero Arts stamp set.  That delicious cream lace is from The Ribbon Girl!! I have stapled it in place to avoid any mess glue showing through.

Oh yum, did I mention, I just {love} this card!! So pleased with myself. I have been getting really down about my colouring techniques lately - especially using ProMarkers - I just can't seem to get the colours and shading right, although I'm working on it. So when I seen this technique Emma uses - I just had to have a go. Okay - I know, I have a long way to go until it even begins to look anywhere near as good as hers - but we all have to start somewhere!!

I would like to enter this card into these challenges:
× The Stamping Bazaar - 16th week - Spots and Stripes
× Digital Tuesday Challenge - Punches
× Anything Goes - Distressing
× Ladybug Crafts - 3 flowers, 2 dps and 1 image
× Party Time Tuesdays - Anything Goes
× Incy Wincy Designs - Use punches or dies
× Little Claire Designs - Anything Goes
× Paper Crafting Journey - Anything Goes
× I Did It Creations - Anything Goes
× 2 Sisters - Embossing
× Simon Says Stamp - Show us some Stripes

Anyway, thanks for stopping by!! I best hit the hay, I'm up at 7 and I have a loooong day ahead. I don't know why I insist on doing this to myself?! LOL. Have a good day tomorrow - 1 day closer to the weeeekeeeeend!! xo